So Much Stuff I Can't Recall

First off, I'm not trying to convince anyone into liking the Grand Theft Auto series. There's plenty of stuff that's just plain nasty. There's plenty of stuff that I don't like my own self. Even so, Vice City is one of the--possibly the--funnest games I've ever played.

Gameworld: If TIE Fighter puts you firmly in the Star Wars universe and Outlaws in Old West America (or maybe an Italian facsimile), then Vice City puts you in Miami during Don Johnson's mid-80s heyday. From the sunsets on the beach to the teal and fuchsia neon to the cigarette boats to the Cuban/Haitian turf wars to Joe Jackson's "Steppin' Out" on the radio, everything feels believable, if not authentic (I wasn't in Miami during the mid-80s, so all I know from is Miami Vice and this feels like that).

The gameworld is huge and gameplay is completely free-form. Want to run a mission for one of the various kingpins? Go ahead. Want to just run around and explore the city? Have fun. Interested in a career driving a cab or delivering pizzas on a moped? Try it out before you quit school. About the only thing you can't do is swim; entering water over your head means sudden death.

Even the cutscenes take into account what you're wearing (from Hawaiian shirt to unstructured suit to coveralls) and sometimes even what you've been tooling around in.

Moral Choices: Of the games I've looked at this week, Vice City is simultaneously the most and least moral game of the bunch. There are consequences for bad behavior: jack a car in front of a cop, the cop'll chase you down. Kill a cop and the whole town descends upon you. From what I've heard, do enough damage around town and Crockett & Tubbs come looking for you. Good behavior, on the other hand, is rewarded: see a cop chasing someone on foot? Lend a hand (more accurately, a fist) and pick up a $50 "good citizen" bonus.

Almost anything you can do in real life, you can do in the game. Just because you can engage in antisocial behavior, doesn't mean you necessarily will. Sure, you can let a hooker "rock your car" and then kill her to get your money back ... but you don't have to (curiously, the "car-rocking" action increases your health, which should clue critics into how fictional the game really is). You can mug a guy in an alleyway for a few bucks ... but you don't have to. You can run up behind a complete stranger and whap him or her in the head just for laughs ... but you don't have to. You don't even have to do any of the story-line missions for the kingpins and the game is still a heck of a lot of fun.

Fun: What kind of fun? Well there's a treasure hunt involving 100 statues hidden around town. There are "Top Fun" vans located around the city that launch remote control car/plane/helicopter games. There are taxi missions, amubulance missions, police and firetruck missions. You can drive a Ferrari-style sports car around the mall just for kicks. Or ride a motorcycle around on rooftops. Or go crazy with a dune buggy on the beach.

Or with almost 70 songs in the soundtrack you could just park your car somewhere and let the radio play while you go on about real-life things away from the computer.

Replayability: I haven't finished the game yet (my almost-40-year-old reflexes make some of the missions more difficult than perhaps they were intended to be), so I can't say for certain how replayable the game will be. But based on the variety of non-lethal gameplay mentioned above and the fact I can go to Miami any time without going to Miami, I expect if and when I become the Vicelord of Vice City there'll still be some reason to come back for more.